From Melbourne to Bilbao

Well, here I am in Bilbao. After 3 flights I have finally made it. Well technically I arrived yesterday but after going for a wander and finding some food, I eventually made it to my room, showered, and passed out.

So that’s where I am now, lying on my bed about to recap on my travels to get here!

MELBOURNE > SINGAPORE
I flew Singapore Airlines and it was a pretty easy flight. I had downloaded a bunch of things to my phone to keep me entertained but I did check out the inflight entertainment options and watched House of Gucci. I was pleasantly surprised with the vegan meal options, which included a mushroom filled pastry to start with, and I was starving at this point so it was well appreciated. For the main meal, I got some pasta with a tomato/capsicum sauce (which actually had some flavour to it), bread roll and fruit cup.

I had a while to wait at Singapore airport before boarding my next plane, so I walked around a bit checking out things. There are a few different gardens including a Water Lily garden and the Butterfly garden. I realised my first mistake was not organising to leave the airport to access Jewel – the hub that has all the really really cool shit to do at the airport. So note to self and anyone else with a long layover, organise that in advance. Once I realised that I pretty much just got some food and caught up on some work and emails. There is an Indian food place in the Food Street in Terminal 3 that has good vegan options.

SINGAPORE > MUNICH > BILBAO
Next up was the 12 hour flight to Munich. Flying with Lufthansa, this was an overnight flight. We left Singapore at about 11:30pm, and I was ready for a sleep. I took a Restavit once I was on board and while waiting for that to take effect we got a meal. This was pretty meh! I think I nodded off though after eating as I blinked and my tray was magically gone. The food was alright, just some bland veggies for dinner and for breakfast it was some cucumber and tomato on bread. Singapore Airlines food was better.

I pretty much just moved between awake and sleep during this flight. The restavit sure helped me doze in and out. There was a super annoying child that disrupted quite a few peeps. I just popped my headphones on with some music to drown them out and slipped back into slumber. I watched Lola Rennt, hadn’t seen it in years and it’s got a good soundtrack too for closing eyes here and there. I also watched the new Scream. That was a bit of fun. It plays into itself and was a good dose of nostalgia. I do just want to watch OG Scream now though.

When we arrived in Munich the plane was greeted by the Fire Department who hosed down the plane. There wasn’t a problem with the plane, it was however the final flight for our Captain who was retiring after 35 years. This was also my first everyone on board the plane clapping moment…that was nice. I got a bit teary during the moment but am blaming exhaustion for that.

I just had to wait about 3 hours for my final flight (also with Lufthansa) to Bilbao. I got a coffee, set up my E-Sim for my Europe number and data, then answered more emails and caught up on some work. This was a pretty easy 2 hour flight. I had organised an airport transfer so my Taxi driver waited for me to collect my luggage, spotted me (I left a note in the booking saying I had pink hair) and she came running up to me pointing at the sign with my name on it. Got dropped off at my accomodation and left my bags while I wandered to find some food and all that.

After my wander I came back to my room to have a shower. I took the opportunity to lay down (may have been a mistake) which felt amazing after the last however many hours and I ended up not getting back up. I stirred out of sleep and I probably should have got back up but didn’t. So my body is clearly still clocked into Melbourne time. I am off to see the Guggenheim Museum in a few hours and to be honest, it’s the only thing I planned to do in Bilbao as I kind of want to try to reset my body here. So I will try not to lie down and go to sleep at 5pm tonight. Instead I will try to check out one of the bars that does vegan pintxos.